LETTER: Council has made the correct decision to keep the gates

Perhaps I belong to the Luddite brigade as I think Lewes DC has made the correct decision to keep the gates.

As an architect specialising in the maintenance of listed buildings it is depressing to see how many get demolished for so called modern development.

These gates are the last of their kind on the local network. It is surely not beyond the capability of Network rail to fit motors and remote control as they do for their standard raising barriers.

If they must be manually operated they have a surplus of staff hanging around at stations seemingly doing nothing and are there not a certain number of redundant signalmen available.

Given that the trains today run no more quickly than those hauled by steam over a hundred years ago there can be no particular safety issue. Oh how wishful it is for the railways to be fit for purpose. I doubt there will be little improvement in my time.